Sunday, 12 July 2015

Srebrenica

Twenty
years ago the Srebrenica massacre
was the deadliest of the Bosnian War andfollowed a short-lived NATO bombing of Serb positions. That would culminate four years later with intensive bombing against
Serbia itself.I
was in Mostar at the time and could
hear the planes as they headed for Belgrade. Only more recently, when
researching weapons used in the Iraq war, did I find out that their
bombs were tipped with depleted uranium. (articles for
Future Trust & Counterpunch). Srebrenica
has since
been
invoked to justify military interventions elsewhere.
In 2005, Christopher Hitchens defended the US decision to invade Iraq
with an article entitled , “From
Srebrenica to Baghdad”. Guardian
columnist,
Peter Preston, advocated military intervention in Libya, with
these
words,
“Remember Srebrenica”. Most recently an
article on ISIS in
the
New International Business Timeswarned
of a “New
Srebrenica”. Srebrenica
was the
largest mass killing in Europe since the 1940s. Eight
thousand Muslim
/ Bosniak men and boys were
killed and,
according
to an investigation
by the
Dutch government, “Muslims were slaughtered like beasts.” But,
according
to Swedish diplomat Carl Bildt, European Union mediator during the
Bosnian War, Bosnian government forces assigned to protect Srebrenica
were “not putting up any resistance. Later it was revealed that
they had been ordered by the Sarajevo commanders not to defend
Srebrenica.” Bildt’s account is supported by military
correspondent Tim
Ripley, who
has
provided
evidence that the Bosnian government ceded the town to Serb forces.
There
is evidence that a similar policy was applied in Mostar, where I was
living. Bosnian forces were withdrawn from a strategic hilltop in the
town on orders from the Sarajevo government. International
talks to resolve the Bosnian conflict began in early 1992, shortly
before the war began. The effort was directed by Portuguese diplomat
José Cutileiro. He
brought the leaders of all three Bosnian ethnic groups to Lisbon and
out
of the talks came a plan for
an
ethnic confederation. In March 1992, all three agreed to a
preliminary version of this
peace plan, butit
broke down under
US pressure.
Were
they
afraid that the European Community might emerge as a distinct power
bloc in the post-Soviet world, acting
independently of
the United States and NATO? The
US ambassador to Yugoslavia, Warren Zimmermann, encouraged President
Izetbegović to
reject the
peace plan. According to former State Department official George
Kenney, “Zimmermann told Izetbegović … [the US
will] recognize you and help you out. So don’t
go ahead with the Lisbon agreement.”
Zimmermann himself has denied blocking the agreement, but a
wide range of sources, including James Bissett, the Canadian
ambassador to Yugoslavia; Peter Carrington, a former UK foreign
minister; and the official Dutch investigation of the Bosnian War,
confirm that the US government played a disruptive role. In light of
US pressure, the Croats and Muslims both withdrew from the agreement
andthe
stage was set for war. The
idea that international diplomacy emboldened Serb
aggression
is a myth thathas
helped justify later efforts to scuttle diplomatic settlements
elsewhere.
Theensuing
levels
of slaughter has resulted
in the death of hundreds of thousands.It
continues. I
doubt the victims of the Srebrenica massacre would
welcome
this as
their
epitaph. ( my memoirs, "Left Field" will be published by Unbound in March 2016)For fuller accounts read here, here and here